On Cosmopolitanism
By: Patrick F. BassettPublished: February 15, 2012
Updated: March 22, 2012
Last summer I had the opportunity to speak in Japan, shortly after the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear plant meltdown. I learned some astonishing things about the character of the Japanese people on that trip. One story I read while there was about septuagenarians showing up and volunteering for the nuclear plant cleanup, assuming that if anyone’s life should be placed at risk from leaking radioactivity, it should be those who have already lived a long time, rather than any young people employed on the emergency services team. A second story I read was that in the space of a couple of days after the tsunami, $75 million in unmarked cash that had washed ashore was turned in to authorities, the prevailing ethos being, “This is not my money, so I must turn it in.” It’s hard to imagine either event happening in the United States, where the attitude would more likely be, “I didn’t sign up for that” in the first case, and “Thank you God for answering my prayers” in the other. These events reinforced for me… 1. How valuable in the shrinking world and global economy it would be to learn about how other cultures process events and what attitudes and values drive their reactions; and… Read more ... http://www.nais.org/about/article.cfm?ItemNumber=156225&sn.ItemNumber=4181&tn.ItemNumber=147271 |
